Calling RadioSport Nation...

North American QSO Party CW v.08 will fire up stadium Earth in a few minutes. Software ready? Goals prepared? Antennas tuned? Transceivers too the starting line.

Helios give us propagation, please!

RadioSport Nation rock the rates, clean sweep the multipliers, and have ultimate cool fun with Ham Radio. 73.

Contest on.

Extra Class Practice Examinations (5 of 5)

Time for a practice examination before the start of NAQP this morning. My callsign is N6CQP and I'm on the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) Team Two. On the other hand, my Extra class license manual was shipped and expected to arrive any day!

I scored 48% on test number nine. Come on license manual!

Missed Questions.

• What is the maximum mean power permitted for any spurious emission from a transmitter or external RF power amplifier transmitting at a mean power less than 5 watts on an amateur service HF band?
• If you are installing an amateur radio station antenna at a site within 5 miles from a public use airport, what additional rules apply?
• From which locations may a licensed alien amateur operator be the control operator of an amateur station?
• How does the spread-spectrum technique of frequency hopping (FH) work?
• Under clear communications conditions, which of these digital communications modes has the fastest data throughput?
• What is the Baudot code?
• If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 10 ppm reads 432,100,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?
• What is meant by the dynamic range of a communications receiver?
• Why is an antenna with a cardioid pattern desirable for a direction-finding system?
• What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel R-L-C circuit at resonance?
• What is the third family of circles, which are added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?
• When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the horizontal axis represent?
• In a circuit where the AC voltage and current are out of phase, how can the true power be determined?
• What is the effective radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4-dB feed line loss, 3.2-dB duplexer loss, 0.8-dB circulator loss and 10-dBd antenna gain?
• What is a common use for point contact diodes?
• What logical operation does an OR gate perform?
• What characteristic do typical SSB receiver IF filters lack that is important to digital communications?
• What does the accuracy of a frequency counter depend on?
• When designing an op-amp RC active filter for a given frequency range and Q, why are the external capacitance values usually chosen first, then the external resistance values calculated?
• How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency (the modulated frequency)?
• What is the necessary bandwidth of a 1000-Hz shift, 1200-baud ASCII emission F1D transmission?
• Which of the following best describes electromagnetic waves traveling in free space?
• What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?
• What are the disadvantages of a terminated rhombic antenna for the HF bands?
• What is the typical velocity factor for a coaxial cable with polyethylene dielectric?

All the best to everyone participating in NAQP CW and may propagation be with us.

Contest on.

QTH

QTH IS GROOVEY

Goals NAQP CW 2008

Looking for 100-watts of fun? The North American QSO Party (NAQP) sponsored by the National Contest Journal (NCJ) kicks off this Saturday. One hundred watts maximum spells excitement for everyone especially 3- and 4-Level stations. My antenna system is a doublet fed with 450-Ohm balanced line at 30-feet sandwiched between two condo units. I'm pumping 45-watts of Yaesu FT100 into the antenna as well.

Goals.

• Have fun.
• Work as many multipliers on each respective band as possible.
• Break last year's QSO and point total.
• No busted calls.
• Operate 10 of the 12-hours.

I'm operating under the callsign N6CQP during NAQP. My 3-land call is propagationally confusing and N6CQP reduces QTH repeats. A valuable lesson learned during the California QSO Party. Hopefully other operators will hear the 1-T in Scot. Oh yeah, KA3DRR is a long tooth Morse code call in contrast N6CQP has a certain musical cadence.

Let's have RadioSport contesting fun this weekend. See you in the log!

Contest on.

QSO

PUT QSL IN QSO

Extra Class Practice Examinations (4 of 4)

I wanted a practice examination before ending the weekend. Hopefully next week my Extra class license manual will be in the mailbox.

Missed Questions.

• What is the maximum mean power permitted for any spurious emission from a transmitter or external RF power amplifier transmitting at a mean power of 5 watts or greater on an amateur service HF band?
• What is a linear transponder?
• Which of the following is NOT a common method of transmitting accompanying audio with amateur fast-scan television?
• Which of the following types of packet frames is used to transmit APRS beacon data?
• What frequency range would you normally tune to find EME stations in the 70-cm band?
• What advantage does a logic probe have over a voltmeter for monitoring the status of a logic circuit?
• What is the time constant of a circuit having a 220-microfarad capacitor in series with a 470-kilohm resistor?
• What is the process of normalizing with regard to a Smith chart?
• In polar coordinates, what is the impedance of a network comprised of a 300-ohm-reactance inductor in series with a 400-ohm resistor?
• What is a magnetic field?
• In a circuit that has both inductors and capacitors, what happens to reactive power?
• What characteristic of a crystalline solid will photoconductivity change?
• Structurally, what are the two main categories of semiconductor diodes?
• In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?
• What is the typical noise figure of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier?
• What is the procedure for tuning a vacuum-tube power amplifier having an output pi-network?
• What is the peak voltage at a common household electrical outlet?
• What is the necessary bandwidth for a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII emission J2D transmission?

Scores.

• Test #5 = 44%
• Test #6 = 53%
• Test #7 = 40%
• Test #8 = 60% (Best)

Fun weekend despite the storm and I'm looking forward to NAQP!

Contest on.

2008 ARRL RTTY Round-Up

What a difference a night makes? Or what a difference a sustained rate makes? The fun continues while fans of RTTY RadioSport contesting fill stadium Earth and watch the megatron Live Amateur Radio Scores.

The match-up is K4TD and K5NZ in the Multi-Single (M/S) High Power (HP) class. An M/S operation consists of one transmitter and a team of operators. Some operate for fun. Others operate for fun and for the thrill of victory. The ultimate goal is satisfaction after 24-hours of intense focus, shifting strategies, and seamless teamwork.

M/S HP.

• K4TD, 130 Kpts, 1114 Qs, 117 Mults.
• K5NZ, 97 Kpts, 970 Qs, 47 Mults.
• AA3B, 57 Kpts, 600 Qs, 44 Mults.

Forty meters favored K4TD as the team harvested 568 Qs and 40 mults. Whereas team K5NZ reaped 416 Qs and 6 mults on the same band. AA3B, on the other hand, dominated 80-Meters thus far with 237 Qs and 20 mults.

Watch 40- and 20-Meters through the day because productivity on 15-Meters according to Live Amateur Radio Scores reflects the beginning of Cycle 24.

Fatigue gnaws at the outer edges of one's focus as the second half begins. Let's watch the megatron and see what happens as K4TD and K5NZ collide on the ionospheric field.

Contest on.